No Cupcakes Allowed
by Durnesque
Summary: When Tezuka gets attacked by a gay hobo, he thinks his day can't get much worse. But when he crosses paths with a girl whose dark past follows her everywhere and will do just about anything for a cupcake, Tezuka is about to be taken on a wild, sugary ride
1. Chapter 1: Drug Pusher

Do you ever notice, when you have a really bad morning, how things just tend to get worse? That no matter what you do, everything that's shitty in the world just comes flying your way? That no matter how many hobos you give your clothing to, girls you rescue from trash cans, or drug dealers you take the hit for, your day still just sucks?

Yeah, I was having one of those days.

I was running to school because I slept through my alarm clock. Today was an all-day tennis camp, and I felt like, as the captain, I shouldn't be late. Especially since I punish so many people for being late, it was just really hypocritical for me to be late. Regardless, I was late. I was running. Next thing I know, I'm flying through the air, hands out in front of me to break my fall. OW. I rolled onto my back, facing my attacker.

Honestly I almost burst out laughing. He was about 5 foot, and probably like 500 pounds with the biggest breasts I had ever seen. A cigarette hung out of the corner of his tiny mouth, the ashes falling and burning a hole through his t-shirt that just barely covered his beer bulge. The funniest part of this man was the woman's Seigaku tennis workout tank top crammed onto his massive body.

"Give me your shirt."

What.

I took a second to straighten my glasses and brush the dirt off my shirt (which ultimately ended up more dirty because my hands were bloody) before responding. I guess he took my lack of response as an insult, because he kicked my shin, hard. I almost screamed like a little girl, I won't lie. I ripped my shirt off and threw it at his face, nursing my leg. And then, in the most adorable baby voice I've ever heard, he says:

"Thanks baby doll," at which point he crams my shirt onto his lard and saunters off like a princess. I stared for a good 30 seconds in pure shock before I pushed myself up off the ground. My leg was screaming bloody murder as I took steps, so I limped, shirtless and bloody, determined to get to tennis on time. Someone honked at me, at which point I looked at the ground and refused to look up again until I got to the courts.

"LET ME OUT YOU PIECE OF SHIT," a woman suddenly yelled. She sounded close, but I didn't see anyone, so I kept walking. "COME BACK HERE!" I jumped this time, searching for the source. My search quickly led me to a silver trash can, where the lid had been clamped down. Someone was in there! I quickly ripped the lid off only to be knocked back 10 feet with 120 pounds of girl crushing my nuts. She was shirtless as well, left with only her bra and a short pair of shorts. I might have paid more attention to her appearance if I didn't feel like I was being castrated. She shot up off the ground, glowing with anger.

Once she was done using my balls as a cushion, she was actually pretty attractive. She was tan and in shape, with medium brown hair that probably would have been really nice if there wasn't a banana peel stuck to the right side of her head. I recognized her from school, but I had never made an effort to talk to her, and she looked like I was the last person she wanted to see right now.

"Did that bastard take your shirt too?" she shouted at me. It was 7AM and I was already tired of being yelled at and beaten on. This was my first sign to just go home. Of course, saintly old me refused. Do the right thing he said, it will pay off in the end he said. Well he was a retard. And by he I mean me.

I would just like to say, in my own defense, that I am a pretty decent guy. I mean, it may seem like I'm a hard-ass, but really I only act that way because I know what it takes to be the best of the best. I'm a stickler for the rules, but what is the point of having rules if you don't follow them? And who cares if I make people run laps every now and then. Tennis was a physical sport. It's not like running's bad for you. But the way they carry on, you'd think I was making them army crawl the laps. It's enough to make any person annoyed once in a while. That being said, I didn't really think I deserved to be in jail right now.

That's right. I, Kunimitsu Tezuka, was currently sitting half naked and half-hearted in the Tokyo Province Slammer.

But back to this morning. After the girl calmed down, she revealed that her name was Phoenix and she was the captain of the girl's tennis team. The boys and the girls always started the morning together during the tennis camps. The morning was when we did things like calisthenics, stretches, and general gameplay. We decided to run to camp, even though we were already late, and both fretting about showing up together without pieces of clothing. When we finally got there, everyone was running, and I felt genuinely uncomfortable being there. I could tell Phoenix was feeling some heat too, because she just stared at her feet while everyone gave us the one over. Sensei Ryuzaki just looked at us, shook her head, and told us to fall in running laps. We were instructed to do a hundred, but everyone else only had to do 75, and they were already at 50. Everyone wanted to know what the heck we were doing, why we were late, where our clothes were. At this point I liked having Phoenix around because she told everyone animatedly of this gay hobo who had attacked us on the street, which people responded to with a variety of confusion, shock, or laughter. Apparently she had been running to school and got tripped as well, but instead of demanding her shirt, he simply took it and dumped her in the trashcan and clamped it shut.

When everyone else stopped running, we kept going in silence, powering through so people would stop staring at us. When we were done, Sensei Ryuzaki told everyone to begin stretching. She took Phoenix and I aside, saying we could go get a drink of water while she went and got us some clothes. So there we were, Phoenix dunking her head in the fountain, trying to scrub banana out of her hair, and me washing the cuts on my hands.

"Hey," someone called. I hadn't even noticed these two guys coming up to us. They were…punks. Punk was the only word that came to mind when I thought about them. They had baggy pants and backward baseball caps. A backpack was slung around one guy's shoulder.

The guy without the backpack had shaggy blond hair and aviator glasses. He tilted his head to see us. Phoenix finally pulled her head out of the water and slung water all over the guy with the backpack as she shook her head to get the water off. She turned around, looking equally as confused as I felt.

"You the guys?"

I looked at Phoenix. Phoenix looked at me.

"Um…no?" she said, trying to take a step back and hitting the fountain. She was trapped.

The guys weren't scary or anything. They just looked like a couple of pothead kids up to no good. They shrugged and with a "peace" they were gone.

"What the hell?" Phoenix asked, watching the guys as they slouched off. "What is up with this day?" she asked herself more than she asked me. We started to head back to the courts, which were hidden by the trees.

BAM. I fell to the ground, slamming my clean hands into the dirt. I tumbled, and it took me a second to realize that someone has tackled me. I rolled out of my tackle, but Phoenix wasn't so lucky. She hit the ground face first, earning herself a mouthful of dirt. A slightly overweight cop was sitting on her (even though she was putting up a hell of a fight), handcuffing her hands behind her back. My pursuer, who had tumbled off, was back for more, wrestling me to the ground and handcuffing me as well. Phoenix was shouting a long list of profanities at the cops, who yanked us off the ground and were hauling us off campus. I was too scared to fight back, so I just quietly walked with the cop, but Phoenix wasn't going down that easily. The guy was sweating profusely as he tried to contain her, but even with her hands behind her back, she was beating the shit out of him. He was screaming us our rights before she gave him a direct kick to the nuts, and he went down.

She turned to me and the policeman holding my upper arm in a death grip. She looked tribal, her face covered with dirt and blood which was spurting out of her nose, her eyes wild. And then, like that, the policeman pulled out his Taser and gave her a direct shot to the neck. She mumbled something that sounded like "muffins!" and fell to the ground, passed out.

"Get off your ass, Kukai," my cop, who was much bigger and stronger, scoffed. Kukai got up, wiped his brow, and threw Phoenix over his shoulder like a rag doll. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, and she was drooling all over the back of the cop's shirt.

"You two are under arrest for the suspicion of illegal drug trafficking."

"What?" I demanded, stopping in my tracks. The cop yanked at my arm, but I wasn't going to budge until I got some answers.

"Don't play dumb," he sneered. "We personally witnessed the drug transfer between you two and the dealers by the water fountain."

"You're mistaken," I said as calmly as I could muster, even though on the inside my heart bounced around in my chest in panic.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll see what you have to say behind bars."

I was, to say the least, freaked out. I walked with my head down, but I really felt like screaming. I was so scared. I couldn't go to jail. What would my parents say? I'd be kicked off the tennis team! My entire life flashed before my eyes, and it sucked! They escorted us to their squad car, throwing Phoenix in behind me. We sat in dead silence as we drove through the city. I was going through my entire life in my head, trying to figure out what to tell my parents, how to explain this to Ryuzaki. I was so screwed. This was ridiculous. Phoenix finally came about, sitting up. She was mumbling to herself, playing with the handcuffs behind her back.

"You should really think about the way you treat an officer," the fat one said, turning in his chair to look at Phoenix. She didn't even acknowledge him. She kept her head down, still rotating her hands and tugging on the handcuffs. "Though I wouldn't expect anything better, with kids these days," he said, and both the officers laughed. "Parents just don't know how to raise their kids anymore."

And then Phoenix did the worst possible thing. She spit on the guy, right in the face. He flung himself backward against the dashboard, wiping his face with his shirt.

"You brat!" He reached through the bars, trying to grab onto…what. I didn't know. She rolled back in her seat, stomping the bars, crushing the guy's hand. He shrieked, and the driver swerved into traffic from the guy falling all over him.

"She fucking broke my hand!" the cop shouted at the driver. The driver shoved the guy back into his seat.

"Say another thing about my parents and it will be your neck," she said. What was super creepy about her statement was that it didn't even sound angry. She just stared at the guy with absolutely no emotion for a few seconds, and then she returned to fiddling with the cuffs.

"We'll drop them off at the impound and then we'll take you to the hospital," the driver stated gruffly, sounding annoyed. And that's exactly what they did. They dumped us off in a cell, locked the door, and left.

Phoenix sat still just long enough for them to leave then ripped her hand free from the cuff. Her wrist was circled by a black and purple bruise, but she just shook it off and started examining the door.

I was still in shock from being arrested. I just sat while she paced the cell, occasionally tugging at a random piece of the door. She took a hairclip out of her hair, which was stained with blood and dirt from rolling around on the ground. She jammed it in the lock and began twisting it wildly.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked.

She looked at me incredulously. "You're seriously going to sit here until those retards come back to arrest us officially?"

Well, I was planning on it.

"We can't just break out of jail. Then we'll be in even more trouble," I said, trying to reason with her. At least this way there was a chance we could get out of this with clean records.

"Tezuka," she said as if she was annoyed that I was trying to restrain her from becoming a criminal. "I just broke an officer's hand. I'm not coming out of this with a clean record." I got the feeling she was hiding something from me, but I honestly did not care because I was in jail.

And that's where I was now. Sitting in jail, half naked, all panicked.

There comes a time when a man must choose what is right and what is wrong. I was all set to choose what was right, and just wait for the officers to return. But when a pretty girl asks you to help her break out of jail, there was no saying no. Also I was scared to be in the same room with her after what I just saw.

She had constructed a makeshift key, and all she needed was to offset the door. She told me to lean while she pulled up, and then the door swung off its hinges, just like that. I stared in disbelief. She ripped her bobby pin out of the key hole and returned it to her hair, and quietly opened the door to the main office. I followed begrudgingly. There was one plainclothes officer sitting at the desk, his head slumped back. He was asleep. Phoenix crawled to him, unhooking his key ring and motioned for me to move. I quietly made my way to the door, and then…

Ting!

The door had a little jingle bell attached to it. Phoenix shot me an "are you freaking retarded look", and then slowly backed away. The officer stirred, and Phoenix bolted out the door before it could even shut behind me. "Run!" she shouted to me, and took off down the road. I followed her, my arms still pinned behind my back, adrenaline coursing through me. I just escaped from jail! JAIL!

I had no idea where we were, and I was pretty sure Phoenix didn't know either, because she kept stopping and going, looking for a place to hide. We finally reached a park, and she dove behind some bushes, breathing hard. I collapsed to my knees, panting heavily. She pulled the keyring out of her pocket, and started to fiddle with my handcuffs. After an excruciatingly long couple of minutes, they slid open. There is no more glorious feeling in the universe than being able to move your arms after being handcuffed. I rubbed my wrists in relief, and for a minute I forgot all about the fact that I was now most likely a wanted criminal.

"Let's go home, dude," Phoenix said after a while. She looked totally beat, and I didn't blame her. She had taken most of the heat this afternoon. "I think we came from the south. So let's just start walking."

I didn't argue. When we made sure we didn't hear any sirens, we started to walk back the way we came. We walked in silence for a good two or three miles. The sun beat down on our skin, which was turning red as the day passed on. It was 9AM, and I had already gotten mugged, arrested, and broken out of jail. How could this day possibly get worse?

I should have not even thought that. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, an ancient car, probably older than Phoenix and I combined rolled up. A girl and a guy were sitting in the front, smoking a joint. They looked at us for a few seconds then the girl in the passenger seat said:

"Get in."

"Go fuck yourself," Phoenix said. She didn't even look at the girl, just kept walking.

"Hey, girly," the girl called. Phoenix didn't stop. "Come back here or you can kiss your boyfriend goodbye." I stopped dead in my tracks, whirling around. The girl lifted her hand out of her jacket pocket just enough to let us see a 32 caliber pistol. Phoenix stopped too, and I could tell she was quickly thinking through the situation.

"Now I said Get. In. The. Car." The girl said, real slowly. Phoenix looked at me, hopelessness plastered all over her face. She shook her head, and pulled open the door, getting in the car. I followed, a fresh wave of unease churning in my stomach.

We must have driven 10 miles before either of our kidnappers said a word.

"Do you know what you've done to us?"

Phoenix was staring at the floor, unresponsive. So I said "No."

The girl laughed at Phoenix. "Scared, baby? I ain't gonna hurt you." Still, Phoenix did nothing. So the girl turned to me. "See, we had a big drug deal goin' down today. Do you know where this was supposed to happen?"

I shook my head.

"I'll give you a hint. When we got there, a couple of retards were rolling around in the dirt, beating up a police officer. Yeah, you remember now, huh? Those two scumbags coming up to you with a backpack? That was meant for us. But they got real scared when the cops showed up, and they dumped the backpack way in the middle of Timbuktu. Well we already paid these morons, so now we gotta go get the pack. In a way, it was real lucky that you dumbasses got picked up by the police, because now the heat's on you, and if you get caught, it will only confirm that you two are the ones they're looking for."

"What do you mean, if we get caught?"

"It means, you moron, that you're going to get the stuff. And you're going to bring it back to us." She handed me a slip of paper with a meeting place. "You get back by 4PM, and we don't kill you, aight?" '

I gulped and nodded.

"Now get out." She said. I opened up the door, and stepped on the gravelly road. There wasn't a car in sight, even though I could see a small town way in the distance. I looked back for Phoenix, but she was still sitting in the car, head down.

"Did you not hear me? I said get out."

Phoenix uttered two words.

"Make me."

The girl pulled out the gun, this time pointing it at Phoenix.

"If I get to 3, you're dead. 1….2….Thr-" In the middle of 3, Phoenix kicked the gun out of the girl's hand with lightning speed. The gun went off, startling everyone, including Phoenix, but she picked it up and pointed it at the girl.

"Still think I'm a baby?" she asked, getting out of the car. "Get your shit yourself. Let's go Tezuka," and with that, she started walking down the road into town. She looked like a total badass, walking down a dirt road into the distance, a gun in her hand, hair blowing in the wind. I looked to the guys in the car, who were in shock, mouthing wordlessly to each other. I jogged after Phoenix, who was walking at a brisk pace.

Not soon after I caught up to her, I could hear the car roaring behind us. The guy was talking this time.

"Look," he said. "We have bad track records. If you just find the pack, we'll pay you. Handsomely." After no response, he just said to me, "Here. If you find it, call this number." And then they drove away. As soon as they were out of sight, Phoenix doubled over, crouching on the ground, letting loose a whole list of swear words.

"When I took the gun from that bitch I fucking shot myself," she said through gritted teeth. She pulled up her pant leg to reveal a bloody mess. The bullet had torn right through the side of her leg, probably embedded in the seat of the car.

"Why didn't you say something before?" I asked, kneeling down to examine the wound. It wasn't that bad, and could easily be stitched up, but it was still bleeding profusely and probably didn't feel too good either.

"Because I was trying to look hardcore so they wouldn't freaking kill us!" She shouted at me. "You were just going to sit there and take it!"

"So?" I asked defensively. "I didn't want to die! We aren't dealing with kids anymore. We're criminals thanks to you!"

She shot me a look that that made my insides crawl. "We didn't do anything. They had no reason to treat us the way they did."

"No. They had no reason to treat ME like they did. I wouldn't even be in this situation if it weren't for you," I said. It just slipped out. I didn't even mean to say it.

Instantly her face shifted from angry to hurt. She looked as if I had just slapped her across the face. And at that very instant, I realized everything she had put us through was for me, because she was right. If it had been up to me, we'd still be sitting in jail, charged with drug trafficking and God knows what else.

"Look, I'm sorry." I said, trying to backtrack.

"Screw you," she said, not even looking me in the eyes. She stood up with a fresh wave of blood rolling down her leg and started to walk to town. I followed, keeping an arm's distance away from her in case she felt like punching me.

We walked about a mile before she stopped. I could tell her leg was killing her from the way she was walking, so I figured she just needed a break or something. She just sat down on the ground, pulling her good leg up to her chest, burying her face. And then her body started shaking, and it took me a second to realize she was crying. I had no freaking clue what to do. I had seen girls do this at school before, but there were normally a hundred other girls that were instantly at the crying one's side.

Lucky for me, she started talking first. "I don't want to go to jail."

Well. That makes this conversation easier.

I sat down next to her and put my arm around her shoulder. I didn't want to asked why, because duh. There had to be some kind of rule about asking girls questions, and I'm pretty sure "Why don't you want to go to jail?" is on the do not ask list.

"How come?" Oh yeah Tezuka. That's a way better question. I'm pretty sure that was even dumber than "Why?"

Obviously she didn't care, because she responded with "Because they'll take me away."

"Huh?" Oh man. I was killing it. I must have sounded like a class act genius to her.

She looked up to me, and it almost broke my heart. Any trace of anger had left, leaving just pure sadness on her dirty face. She wiped at the tears, but all it managed to do was smear the mixture of crap that had built up over the course of the day.

"My parents," she said, letting out a shaky breath. "My father died in a motorcycle accident a year ago. I don't even know where my mother is."

It was hard for me to wrap my head around this. I had no idea. "So you…live alone?"

"Yeah," She mumbled, sniffling. She had stopped crying, but didn't look any happier. "When I first found out my father had died, I didn't know what to do. The police had returned my father's motorcycle to the house and asked me if I knew anything about the accident. I said no, and then they asked me how old I was. 18, I said. They didn't ID me or anything, but I knew they were suspicious. I was so scared when the social worker came to my doorstep. I told them Phoenix wasn't home. And then I slammed the door in their faces and packed up as much of my shit as I could into a duffle bag and a backpack, waited until late at night, and took my father's motorcycle and drove as far away as I could. I didn't even know how to drive and I drove hundreds of miles on the machine that my own father had died on. By morning I was in Tokyo."

"So what do you do now?" I asked.

She shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I go to school."

"Where do you live?"

"You are nosy. Let's keep walking," she said. She stood up, stretched, and continued hobbling toward town.

I had a bad feeling that she was keeping something from me. Something bad.

And let me tell you, I was tired of being right.


	2. Chapter 2: Gunslinger

Chapter 2- Gunslinger

After a few miserably sunny miles, the town finally came into view. We were still a good mile away, but anything was better than the flat, desolate road. Not a single vehicle had passed us and we had been walking for at least two hours. Neither of us had a moment to put sunscreen on before the whole drug fiasco took place, so we were both baking in the relentless sun. Phoenix had a nice base tan already, but even with her color she was turning pink by the minute. My own torso, which had only seen the light of day a few times, was violently burning and literally hurting me to move.

"Hey," she said, stopping. She was grinning, staring off into the bushes. She jogged down the side of the road and disappeared into the brambles.

"Phoenix," I said, trying really hard not to sound irritated. "Let's just get into town and figure out how we're going to get home."

She came out of the brambles with a panda bear backpack slung around her shoulder. "Look what I found," she said proudly.

I stared dumbly. I had all intentions to never speak of this whole ordeal ever again and pretend this never happened. Clearly she had other plans.

"Can't we just leave it?" I asked, trying to sound reasonable.

"Do you know what I could do with a "handsome" amount of money?" she asked me, almost dreamily. "I could buy socks!" she shouted excitedly, like socks were the most amazing thing to buy.

I immediately looked to her feet. She was wearing ratty shoes, and, big surprise, no socks. I felt guilty even thinking about it. How badly did she have it? If socks were a luxury, what else didn't she have? We continued on our merry way and finally rolled into town at about 1PM. It was a just a little town with a few grungy houses, a grocery store, and a run down strip club. I didn't know about Phoenix, but I was thirsty and my stomach was about to rip itself out of my body and go look for food itself.

"You think that grocery store will give us water?" Phoenix asked as we strolled down the main avenue.

"I don't know," I said. "But we can't even go inside to ask without clothes."

Her shoulders slumped. "I guess…let's just keep going…"

As much as I didn't want to get back on that lonely road, we really had no choice. We passed maybe two people, both of which gave Phoenix a horrified look and turned to walk a different way.

"Phoenix," I said, suddenly realizing that she was still holding the gun. She was twirling it like they did in western movies, apparently not even realizing it. No wonder people were running away from her.

Before I could even say anything, I noticed an elderly woman jogging toward us. Phoenix tossed me the gun in panic, and I did the only thing that seemed logical at the time. I stuffed it in my pants and acted innocent. I had thought that the most uncomfortable feeling was having your hands cuffed behind your back. I was wrong. Having a loaded gun stashed in your underwear easily knocked being handcuffed out of the park. I shifted uncomfortably as the woman ran up to us, breathing heavily. She was wearing a black t-shirt with "Le Girls" written on the chest in neon pink.

"Priscilla!" she shouted at Phoenix. The woman had thick horn rimmed glasses that clearly weren't working. She grabbed Phoenix's arm and started dragging her back to the strip club. "You're late for your shift!"

"Lady, I think you have the wrong person," Phoenix said, struggling against the woman's grip.

The woman laughed. "Oh don't be silly. Priscilla's just your stage name!"

Phoenix looked so mortified that I almost laughed. Then I remembered what deep shit we were in and chased after her as delicately as I could.

"I actually do not work here," Phoenix said, her voice cracking with fear. Sure, no big deal beating down the police. But get her anywhere near a strip club and she freaks out.

The lady didn't even seem to notice that Phoenix was struggling to get away. She was smiling a big, goofy smile as she walked along like it was nobody's business. She either wasn't listening, or didn't care. Phoenix shot me a desperate look over her shoulder, but stopped fighting the elderly woman. I think she just secretly wanted to go inside. I followed up until they walked inside, where the door was slammed in my face.

That's okay, I thought to myself. I could just walk in the front door. I headed around front, but a big, bulky, shirtless man stopped me.

"Sorry man. No shirt, no service."

I turned away, trying to figure out what to do. I sat on the side of the building in a patch of shade, wiping my brow. I needed a shirt. And surely they charged admission. Where was I going to get a shirt without money? And I couldn't just leave her.

I stood up after a few minutes. I had to figure out something, and sitting wasn't going to help. I started to head back to the main drag when I heard something. I didn't even know how to describe it. It sounded kind of like a girl, kind of like someone getting murdered. I turned around and crept to the edge of the building, and what I saw I will never un-see. No amount of the internet would have ever prepared my virgin eyes for this. I poked my head around to find a naked girl handcuffed to the car door handle being screwed brainless by some grungy dude. She was making the most horrific sounds, and I desperately wanted to close my eyes and cover my ears and run away as fast as I could. But I saw a pile of clothes on the opposite side of the car and I knew that this was my only chance to save Phoenix.

They were facing away from the clothing pile, so I crept as quietly as I could without bursting into tears and hid behind the car. The girl's clothes were on top, and the first thing I noticed was a black t-shirt with "Priscilla" written on the chest. I fought the urge to look up from my hiding spot and see if the chick really did look like Phoenix, but I remembered my mission and continued searching. Score! I found a shirt and was about to leave when I noticed a wallet poking out of the pocket of a pair of jeans. I threw all my moral thoughts aside and flung the wallet open, took all the cash and flung it back on the pile. And then, in a dead sprint, I booked it away from the car and its occupants.

The shirt was a green polo about 4 sizes too small, and it was a good thing I wasn't fat because I would look even more ridiculous than I already did wearing it. As for the money, all the guy had was a twenty and a couple ones, but I was better off now than I was a few seconds ago. The gun was lodged in between my legs and I actually had to undo my shorts to get it out. I zipped up and secured the weapon directly above my ass, securing it with my belt.

Now that I looked like a semi normal person again, I headed into the club. The guy who had stopped me before just nodded and let me in without a fuss. Before I could actually get into the club area I had to stop at a small kiosk and pay a twenty dollar entrance fee. So much for having money. The little guy running the table just gave me the look over and jerked his head, and I took that as my cue to leave.

"Hold up," he called, just as I was about to go through the door. "I need to see some ID."

My insides churned. "I don't have an ID."

"Look man, no ID, no entrance." Jesus! I shouted in my mind. These people were acting like this was some freaking Vegas club! I just wanted my friend back! I thought fast.

"I don't have an ID," I said again, slowly this time. I was surprised my words weren't shaking because I sure as hell was. "But I have something else that might convince you." The guy rolled his eyes.

"Come on buddy-" the guy started, but I pulled the gun from its hiding spot and as soon as he saw it, he stopped talking. I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do. Should I point it at him? That seemed a little rude. So I polished it with my shirt while I waited for him to stop babbling.

"G-go ahead in pal," she stammered.

"Thanks," I said with absolutely no sarcasm and stuffed the weapon back into my shorts and shoved through the door.

It really wasn't that bad. A couple of guys were sitting at the bar; some were watching chicks dance around. I scanned the dark area, searching for any sign of Phoenix. She wasn't on the stage, and the only other place that she could possibly be was the 'employees only' area. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, and slid in the unlocked door as quietly and unnoticeably as I could.

"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin. A woman dressed in nothing but what appeared to be dental floss was standing in the aisle, which was lined with doors. She had her hands on her hips, tapping her heeled foot impatiently.

"I'm looking for, uh, Priscilla?" I said as coolly as I could, but I knew I still sounded like a dweeb.

She immediately softened. "You must be her two o' clock! Go right in. Second door on the left." With that, she slid past me and entered the bar. She didn't have to tell me twice. I ripped open the aforementioned door and barged in.

Phoenix was sitting on a poufy chair, an ice pack on her nose. She was still wearing the same clothes when she left me, so that was a good sign. Across the room sat a guy in a button up shirt and black slacks. For being in a strip club, he didn't look too happy. An awkward moment of silence passed.

"Is this him?" the man asked Phoenix, jerking his head toward me.

"Yeah, but look, you don't have to do this."

"It's okay," the guy said, rubbing his face. He was a young guy, and pretty good looking, if I do say so myself. He was tall and lean, with wavy dark hair and an attractive face.

"Let's go," Phoenix said to me, pushing me out of the room. She ignored my questioning glances, just shrugging and following the man out into the parking lot. He unlocked a shiny blue sports car and motioned for us to get in. I got into the back seat, expecting Phoenix to follow, but she folded the seat upright and sat in the front.

"Tokyo, huh? Anywhere in specific?"

"The police station," Phoenix said. I didn't even feel like arguing, even though that seemed like a horrible idea.

We must have been at least 40 miles away, so we drove for about an hour before we even saw anything that looked like a city. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, but I didn't dare sleep. Phoenix and that guy talked the whole ride into town, and it kind of annoyed me. Here she was with this random guy she met at a strip club, talking and laughing about nothing in particular, while she had spent a good majority of the morning with me in silence. I mean, I wasn't much of talker to begin with. But she seemed like the kind of person who could just talk for hours about nothing, with anyone, and it kind of hurt my sense of pride that she didn't feel like she could do that with me.

It really wasn't a big deal, and I knew I shouldn't care, but something about Phoenix just…bugged me. She was beautiful beyond belief, and it amazed me that she could carry such a heavy burden and act like nothing was going on most of the time. She was strong and took care of her body, which I don't think any man would argue with. But she was…secretive. I think that was my main issue with her. There were other things that I disliked as well, mostly revolving around the fact that she could kick my ass before I even had a chance to run. I knew it was none of my business, but she was definitely hiding something. At the same time, she had no reason to tell me. And I tried to respect that.

When we finally pulled up to the police station it was around 3 in the afternoon. Phoenix was gathering her little backpack, when the guy motioned for her to stop.

"What's going on?" he asked, peering out the passenger window. Phoenix and I turned simultaneously, trying to get a better view of what was happening. The two officers that had nabbed us this morning were now struggling to contain two other kids, namely, the kids that had threatened us and dumped us 50 miles from home. They sulked as the officers pushed them toward the impound, and then they saw us. The policemen stopped their fight, stopping in their tracks to stare at us.

I could almost hear their brains turning, trying to decide if we were really the people they wanted. After a few uncomfortable minutes, the tall one who hadn't gotten beaten up nodded to Phoenix, and continued dragging the kids to the impound. That fat one just stared dumbly at us and Phoenix pressed her hand to the glass, her middle finger up.

I was mortified, but the driver guy just laughed. "Pretty sure you can still get arrested for flipping off a police officer. You still want out here?"

Phoenix finally put her hand down as the cop went into the station. She relaxed, and turned to the guy with a smile. "Thank you for everything. If there's anything we can do to repay you…"

The guy smiled at her, and pulled out a card from his wallet. "Give me a call sometime." Phoenix grinned and stuffed the card into her backpack. We piled out of the car, and he revved the engine to life.

"Thank you," I said, and he pulled away from the curb. Phoenix waved as he drove away. "Why didn't you have him drop us off at the school?"

"Because I wanted to talk to you," she said, still smiling. She seemed really taken with that guy. "So what happened after granny kidnapped me?"

We walked for a while, me recalling the horrific events of the past hour. She responded at all the right times; laughing when I told her about stealing the clothes and finding out who Priscilla was, shock when I told her about threatening the strip club guy.

"You shot up the strip club?" she asked, a mixture of horror and humor in her voice.

"I did not shoot up the strip club," I hissed, looking around to make sure no one heard her. She just laughed, a big smile on her face. "I just casually polished my gun. Near his face. Anyway," I said, desperate to change the subject before someone overheard us. "What happened to you?"

"Well, granny pulled me into the back room and sat me in this big chair and brought in this huge guy who had a piercing gun. I said 'what's going on' and before I knew it he stapled a hole right through my nose and left. Granny gave me an ice pack and then put me in a room where I was supposed to get ready for something. Like ten minutes before you showed up, that guy, Ryo, comes in and asks me where Priscilla was. He leaves for literally 30 seconds and then storms back in. Apparently he saw the same thing you did, and it turns out Priscilla was his girlfriend. So we talked for a while and he asked me where I was from and I said Tokyo and he was like oh what are you doing out here and I told him our story and then you came in and now we're here," she said, taking a long breath after that last sentence. We were by the river now, probably only a half a mile from school.

"What a day," I said, sighing.

She nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. This horrendous journey was almost over.

"What do you say we just dump this stuff?" she said, looking toward the river. True to her word, a diamond stud was attached to the right side of her nose. I joined her at the riverbank. She took the backpack off, reached behind me and snatched the gun from my pants and threw them both into the river without another word. We watched the little backpack float down river until it was out of sight.

"Ryo's number was in there," I said, remembering once we started walking. The school was in sight now. We could probably catch the last hour of tennis camp if we really wanted to.

"That's okay," she shrugged. "I wasn't going to call him anyway."

I hated to admit it, but it almost made me feel better to hear her say that. I wasn't jealous, I just didn't like the idea of her being swept off her feet by some guy she met an hour ago.

Okay, maybe I was a little jealous.

"Well," she said once we had reached the girls courts. "I'll see you around, I guess." She shuffled her feet, waiting for me to say something.

"Yeah…"I muttered. "See you later." She gave me one last look, opened up the gate, and headed inside. Within seconds she was swarmed by the girls, all wanting to know where she'd been.

I should be happy. Today had been one hell of a day, and I made it home alive. But as I shuffled to the boys courts, something just felt…off. I had never even known Phoenix before today, and never really had a reason to. Even now, our chapter was over and I had no reason to turn around. I wasn't sad, but I wasn't happy. I was just confused.

I walked through the gates to the courts, making a beeline to my stuff. If I had thought this morning was uncomfortable, I was wrong. Every pair of eyes was on me. After a good minute of silence, Eiji asked "Where the hell have you been?" Then everyone wanted to know, forming a circle around me, asking a thousand questions. Even sensei Ryuzaki was curious as to what had transpired. When everyone chilled out, I figured it would be easiest to just start from the beginning. I told all about how we were arrested for supposed drug trafficking and how Phoenix broke us out of jail, getting picked up by strangers and getting shot at.

"So we just started walking down this road, the town at least three or four miles away. We had no idea where we were, no money, no phones, and I knew Phoenix's leg had to be killing her. When we were about a mile away, she stopped. She told me…" I stopped mid-sentence. The guys stared, waiting to know what I was going to say. "She said…"I tried to start again, but my throat caught.

I stood up against my own will. "I'll be right back," I said, and zipped toward the girls' courts. I could feel a hundred eyes on my back as I ran back, but something told me I had to go to Phoenix. If I let her go now, I would never get her back. I was going to tell her how I felt. I wanted to be her friend. I was just going to tell her that no matter what, I would be there for her, like she was for me.

I walked onto the courts. There was still a massive group of girls surrounding Phoenix, but for the most part they went quiet and stepped out of the way when I entered the courts. Phoenix was still talking, but stopped when she saw me. So there we were, standing face to face, in one of the most awkward moments I had ever been a part of.

"Hi," she said.

I opened my mouth to say something. I was going to say something like "look, I know we had a rough day, but I don't want it end like it did" or something along those lines. But what I did was much worse.

I took a step forward. Her eyes got wide.

And then I kissed her.


	3. Chapter 3: Artist

Over the course of my 16 years of existence, my mother has forced me to watch countless romantic movies. The Proposal, The Vow, The Notebook, you name it; we've seen it. It was no secret that she had always wanted a daughter, but obviously she had to make due with me. So over the years, you could say I'd developed a sort of…standard when it came to first kisses. I had always pictured myself standing in front of some beautiful girl's house, wearing something nice, and then it would just…happen. It would be one of those things a man never forgets. It would be perfect.

This wasn't perfect.

I don't know why I did it. I only wanted to tell her I wanted to be friends. I knew that if she left today that I would never get another reasonable chance to be with her. Er…friends with her. It's not that I was opposed to being with her, but this wasn't the way I wanted to do it.

After an excruciatingly long second, we broke apart. I think it was safe to say we were both in shock. It wouldn't have been weird if I hadn't done it in front of all of her friends, but as it was I could feel a hundred stares boring into my back. I wanted to shrink away. Turn and run. Disappear. Anything would be better than this. But I was having a tough time standing up straight. All my legs seemed to be capable of was feeling like lead. She cleared her throat, a deep blush on her cheeks. At least, I think she was blushing. She could just be sunburnt.

"Um…do you want to talk?" she stammered. She was nervous, and I hate myself for thinking this, but I kind of liked it when she was uncomfortable. It reassured me that she was capable of a softer, more vulnerable side and not just some dark, hit-first question-later kind of girl. Of course, anyone would be uncomfortable in this situation so I tried not to think too much into it.

"Yeah," I said, taking a few steps back. She grabbed her backpack and followed me off of the courts, her head down. Everyone was still staring at us as we walked down the dirt path the water fountain, and it wasn't until we were out of sight that I could relax a little. When we got to the fountain, she climbed up on the ledge and sat down, her head in her hands. I stood awkwardly in front of her, my arms at my sides.

"What the hell?" she asked me. It wasn't angry or condescending or anything, just confused.

"I'm sorry," I said, and I meant it.

"I mean we spent the whole day together and you didn't have any interest me," she went on, her hands on her hips. I tried really, really hard to not stare at her perfect arm muscles. "Suddenly we get back and you pull a stunt like that? Did you do some of those drugs we found or what?"

I didn't know what to say. Kissing her hadn't been my intention at all. I mean, yeah she was smart and brave and damn was she stunning…

I turned away, gripping my head with my hands, trying to squeeze the world out. What was happening to me? I had never been so affected by another person, let alone a crazy one that could kick ass in 10 different languages. I tried to clear my head, all the while searching my befuddled brain for an answer to her. I could feel her staring at me, waiting for my response.

"I don't know what to say. I just…I wanted…I didn't want you to leave," I said, stumbling over my own sentences. I was totally losing it. My only chance of ever smoothing things over was if I suddenly woke up and this whole freaking day had been a nightmare.

Her face was unreadable as she looked me over. I must have looked like such a loser to her, sunburnt and on the verge of man tears. I was so embarrassed about the whole day, and now my sixteen year old boy hormones were going berserk around the one person I wanted to look like a normal human being around.

"Did you think for one second that we go to the same school and you'd see me around classes?" she asked calmly. I couldn't tell if she was genuinely unaffected by my antics or if she was lashing out passive aggressively and this would all come bite me in the ass in a few minutes.

"Yeah, I did," I said helplessly. "I just…after everything we've been though, I just felt like…" I didn't even know what I was trying to say anymore.

"Do you want to date?" she asked me simply. "Is that what you're after?"

"No," I said quickly. "I just wanted to be friends." I tried to sound confident, but even I was second guessing myself now. Did I want to date her? Was there a part of me that secretly wanted her all to myself? I had never had a girlfriend before. I didn't even know what type of girls I liked! And now here I was, standing face to face with the only girl that I'd ever even talked to as myself, wondering whether or not I should date her.

She stared at me for a good 30 seconds with hard eyes. I thought she was going to say something. I would feel a thousand times better if she could just tell me what she was thinking.

Instead, she turned on her heel and started to walk away.

I was in shock for a few seconds, rooted to the spot. That was not the reaction I was expecting at all. I chased after her, grabbing her shoulder to stop her. She whipped around, her face annoyed.

"Look man, you need to figure out whatever the heck is going on in your crazy head right now," she snapped, brushing off my hand. "You spent the whole day ragging on me for this whole situation we got in, then we get back and you all of the sudden decide we should "be friends" and then for some insane reason kiss me in front of everyone! And then, when we talk in private you can't figure out how to construct a complete sentence and have no good reason why you completely trashed my reputation in front of the entire tennis team. I'll see you in school, okay?" she asked, clearly frustrated.

And I just let her walk away.

I sat down on the park bench. Now that she was gone, I could think clearly, and all I could think about was how much of an idiot I was. Who would have ever thought that I, easily the most cool and calculated individual at Seishun Secondary, would have the hardest time talking to women? Eventually I got up and walked back to the courts, but I felt dead on the inside. I might as well have screwed up my one shot of ever being friends with Phoenix, and I felt…crappy. I wanted to be frustrated with her, I really did. Half of the shit we went through today was her fault, and I desperately wanted to just blame her for all of my whacked emotions. What I ended up doing was being frustrated, embarrassed, and ashamed of myself. She didn't like me, not in one way, and I couldn't help but think if I had just said "Phoenix, let's go on a date" I could be in an entirely different ballpark right now.

I didn't know what I wanted. I had no experience with dating. How was I supposed to know that you could just walk up to a girl and say "Will you date me?"

When I made it back to the courts, practice was over and a mixture of girls and guys were scattered over the grounds. All the girls were whispering to their friends and turned their heads to me when I walked in. I kept my head down, grabbed my crap and walked away as fast as I possibly could.

"Hey," someone called from behind me. It was Fuji.

"Hi," I said, my voice hollow.

"I heard what happened. Did you really kiss her in front of everyone?"

"Am I a moron or what?" I asked him, rubbing my eyes.

"Most men are when it comes to women," he said coolly. "Want to order a pizza and watch a movie?"

No, I didn't. But that sounded better than wallowing in my own stupidity. We went back to my house where I had to fight off my mom who desperately wanted me to watch Sex and The City with her. Fuji was all for it but I shoved him down the hallway to my room, in no mood to watch chick flicks. We placed our pizza order online and popped in Batman, a comfortable silence falling over us.

When our movie finished, I was pregnant with a ball of pepperoni pizza and content with just lying on the floor and not moving. Fuji popped his head over the edge of the small couch he was laying on, a strange expression on his face.

"What?" I asked, suppressing a burp.

"So do you like her?"

"Clearly there is some part of me that does," I mumbled. "I just wish it would inform my brain of its feelings."

"You're being way too hard on yourself man. Guys screw up around girls all the time," he said, propping his head on his elbow. "Momo broke his girlfriend's nose in gym last semester."

I was there. It was hilarious.

"Yeah, but normal guys don't just kiss girls in front of the entire tennis team and then tell them they just want to be friends."

"Sure they do," Fuji laughed. "No one really knows how to talk to women."

I knew he was just trying to make me feel better, and I was annoyed because it was working. Now that I stopped to think about it, all my friends had made complete morons of themselves in front of girls they liked. Kaidoh actually ran one over on his bike on accident. She had a broken arm and a foul attitude, but after several months of pursuit she finally agreed to go see a movie with him. That was almost two years ago and they're still dating.

The week before school started passed in a blur. I played a lot of tennis and found myself going to the gym a lot to avoid hanging out with people. I wasn't a generally social person, and I was pretty sure I had fulfilled my social quota for the school year with the retarded kiss. I had no beef with my friends. I just had no desire to see them. That was normal, right?

It was the last Sunday before school started, and I was at the gym like usual, running on the treadmill. It was early, earlier than I had ever been there before. There was a totally different crowd at 6AM than there was later in the afternoon, primarily, the people in the morning actually wanted to work out. I had come earlier in the week and there was a group of girls that thought they were being cute by working out by me, but in reality they just annoyed me because I wanted the machine they were on. Have I mentioned I'm piss-poor bad at talking to women? This morning I was able to run on the treadmill without worrying about sharing or being annoyed by people, because there were only like two other guys there. I ran a hefty amount of miles and my legs were screaming by the end of my run. I slowed the machine down to do a cool down jog.

You know those YouTube videos of people falling off treadmills and how hilariously horrible they are? Yeah, they're about 10 times more horrible and 10 times less hilarious than they are in the videos in real life. I was jogging at a steady pace, but I was dog tired. I admit that I was probably being lazy and shuffling my feet a little more than I should. As I brought my leg forward, I stepped on that little piece of plastic between the belt and the foot rest, and it was like my world went in slow motion. I hit my face on the interface and just completely ate it on the belt. Thankfully I had been wearing the emergency stop cord, but it didn't make flinging me off the machine at 8 miles an hour any less painful. I spent a few seconds trying to catch my breath from the run and another few seconds trying to recuperate myself emotionally. I was totally embarrassed, but I don't think anyone saw.

"All right there, champ?" A voice called from across the room. I sat up, looking to see who had to witness that sorry event.

Of course it was Phoenix. She was jogging over to me, wearing a sports bra and a pair of shorts that I'm pretty sure were too short to be legal in some parts of Japan. I had seen her like this before, but what I failed to notice was how absolutely ripped she was. I mean, the only word that comes to mind when I try to describe her body was "damn". She was grungy, don't get me wrong. She was covered in a thick layer of sweat and her hair was doing something crazy, but her muscles were all aligned to her body in perfect, sexy, harmony. A vein was bulging in her lower abdomen, disappearing into the waistband of her shorts. I wanted to know where it went.

SHUT. UP. I shouted at myself in horror. I picked myself up off the ground and tried to act cool, but I'm pretty sure acting cool was impossible when you had a big, black streak of dirt on your face from eating shit on the treadmill. She stopped a few feet away, a concerned smile on her face.

"You all right?" she asked easily.

"What are you doing here?" was all I could say. Of course it was all I could say, seeing as I was the world's worst flirt.

She bent down and picked my iPod off the floor. "Drake, huh? I wouldn't have taken you for a rap kinda guy," she said, handing me the music player. "And I teach the 6AM kickboxing class."

So that was ass-kicking language number one. I wanted to say something like "cool," or "oh, okay." But what I said was "Sorry."

"For what?" she asked, wiping her face with a small towel. Had she forgotten about the horrors that had occurred only a week ago?

"For kissing you," I said. For the first time since the incident, I gave her a straight sentence. "It was wrong and I feel terrible about it."

"Not wrong," she said to my surprise. "Just the wrong time. Need a ride home?"

That wasn't what I was expecting, and definitely not what I wanted to hear. I guess I had been hoping for some kind of closure or something. I stared like a dumbass for a few seconds before accepting and following her to the parking lot. Lo and behold, there was a beat up old motorcycle parked under a tree. Her dad DIED on this thing. I had to shove the memory from my mind as I got on the back and told her where I lived. It wasn't sweet or romantic or anything like it should be according to teen movies. She just dropped me off, said "see ya," and zipped off to wherever. I took a shower and spent the rest of the day working on neglected summer homework.

The day passed way too quickly, and then next time I blinked my eyes I was walking into the high school. My schedule, with the exception of math, was a joke. I had math first thing in the morning, and there was nothing that screwed with you more than waking up in the morning and having to sit down and be raped by trigonometry. I had some other lame classes that breezed by, but the icing on the cake was my last class of the day.

Art.

I could not fathom why my counselor would put me in an art class, yet here I was; sitting with my head down, praying the semester could just be over already. The desks were in groups of four, and people slowly came in, looking as horrified by the subject as I felt. The art teacher was notoriously, well, bat-shit crazy. She was probably only in her late twenties, but something about her face just freaked me out. It looked like someone had taken a glob of wet clay and stuck it on a human body for kicks and giggles. She was nice enough I guess, but when she got to talking about art, something in her head just snapped.

The teacher, Ms. Mya, started by introducing herself and had us all stand up and say our name and something interesting about ourselves. I said some bland thing about tennis and sat down, thankful that I just got it over with. The door clicked open, and Phoenix walked in, a backpack slung around her shoulder. She sat down at my table, dumping her crap on the ground.

"Hello Ms. Flynn. Would you mind standing up, telling us your name and why you were late?" Ms. Mya said politely enough, but there was some venom behind her words. I got the feeling Phoenix had been in this class before.

Phoenix stood up, clearly not giving a single damn about Ms. Mya. "I am Phoenix Flynn and I am late to this useful class because I was taking a piss," she said. The kids in the back burst out laughing, and I would have smiled too, had I not seen Ms. Mya's face. I thought she was going to start screaming, but she kept her cool and mumbled a sarcastic 'thank you' before moving on. Eventually we were given an assignment to draw our favorite animal and a quiet chatter filled the room.

"My schedule is whacked," Phoenix said, slapping a crumpled piece of paper on the table. "I have calculus, FIRST thing in the morning. I'm pretty sure I failed algebra last year," she said, rubbing her face. She let me look at it, and she was right, her schedule was crazy. She had math, grammar, three consecutive gym classes and then this. It was worse than mine.

"I guess they realized the only thing I'm good at is gym," she said with a laugh, but she seemed tense about it.

I couldn't think of anything to say. Yeah, she was good at athletics, but I wasn't going to tell her that. She dropped her hand from her face and looked at me. "Lemme see yours," she said, reaching across the table and snatching my own right from my jacket pocket. She looked it over and then back to me with a smile on her face. "Seriously, who made these? How is ceramics?" she asked jokingly, but I felt my face getting red and snatched my schedule away from her. It wasn't my fault I got put in a bunch of sissy classes.

"Chill out man," she said with a laugh, pulling out a piece of paper and starting to draw. We worked in silence for a few minutes before I began to get distressed. I was TERRIBLE at art. I am terrible at art like Hitler was terrible to Germany. Okay, maybe that was a little extreme, but "abomination" came to mind when I thought about my artwork. I looked over to Phoenix in panic, only to see that she was, in fact, freaking amazing at art. Her hand flew across the page with ease, but I couldn't tell what she was drawing. It didn't look like any animal I'd ever seen.

"Iron Man is not an animal," Ms. Mya said flatly when she came around to look at our papers.

"Neither is your mom but that's what Tamaki's drawing," Phoenix said, without missing a beat. The air in the room was suddenly very tense and I really thought Ms. Mya would snap, but she just smiled emotionlessly and went to a different table.

The next few days passed by without too much trouble. It turns out I was good at trig and my stress level decreased significantly as everything started to settle down. Tennis got into full swing, and I could play away my worries away every day after school. People eventually stopped talking behind my back and I was able to look the girls on the tennis team in the face without them giggling or sending me dirty looks. Since the whole incident, my life was normal. I played tennis and did homework and had no crazy urges to make out with random girls.

It was Friday afternoon and I was sitting in Art. We were still working on animals, and it hadn't gotten any easier for me. Phoenix walked in about 15 minutes after the bell but Ms. Mya had simply begun to start ignoring her. She sat down, her backpack still around her shoulders, making no effort to do any work.

"Hey," she said simply.

"Hi," I said, accidentally making a huge scratch across my paper.

"You suck at art," she noted, watching me fumble with the eraser.

"Gee, thanks," I mumbled, sighing and turning my sketchbook to a new page.

"Well I'm pretty good at artwork."

I looked up to her, pushing my glasses up. I studied her for a minute, trying to figure out where she was going with this. Coming to no intelligible conclusions, I said nothing and returned to my horrible artwork.

She persisted. "I hear you're pretty good at math."

"So?" I asked, not looking up.

"Look," she said, scooting closer across the table. "I'm bad at math, you're bad at art. Maybe we could….help each other out."

My first thought was that she was using me, because let's face it. Math and art were two totally different ballparks. But I currently had a D minus and if she could really help me…

"Okay," I agreed, meeting her stare. She immediately breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed in her chair. She pulled my sketchbook away from me and scratched her number on it, then stood up.

"Where are you going?" I asked. Ms. Mya was hovering over some poor kids in the back of the room, completely oblivious that Phoenix was just going to walk out.

"Um, home?" Phoenix said, then waved goodbye and just like that, walked out. I secretly wanted to grab my shit and run after her, but before I could make up my mind, Ms. Mya was on my back for not even starting to draw yet. I somehow suffered through the rest of the period and with a great sigh of relief, packed up my shit in a hurry and went to tennis.

"So are you going on a date with her or what?" Fuji asked me at the end of practice.

"Huh?"

"Phoenix. Takami says she gave you her number." Jesus! How did people find these things out?

"Yeah," I said half-heartedly. "For help in math."

"Oh," he said quietly, like I actually had a chance at dating Phoenix. Not only was she a grade ahead of me, but she was super hot and had a long list of suitors way more qualified than me. "But isn't she in calculus?"

I literally stopped in my tracks in realization. I was in trigonometry, one math class underneath her, and I had told her I'd help her.

'Damn' was all I could thing as I walked home in dread. I could always just tell her I couldn't help her, and she probably wouldn't even be upset. But I would be upset.

So I guess I was learning calculus this weekend.


End file.
